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Home / Online Shopping, eCommerce, and Internet Statistics (2019) You Should Know

Online Shopping, eCommerce, and Internet Statistics (2019) You Should Know

By Jason Chow . Last Updated on August 21, 2019

BuildThis.io is committed to providing readers with the most accurate information possible. In the course of our research we collect much data used to back up our articles. This is to ensure the highest levels of integrity as well as limit distortion in our findings.

We rely on qualitative data (numerical statistics such as numbers, percentages and such) to offer readers reliable proof of fact. This is optimal for analysis which requires you to base a business decision upon and can serve to minimize the possibility of errors.

Amazon is the leading online retailer with net revenue of $232.88 billion in 2018. The companyÂ set a record for profits in the first quarter of 2019, reporting net income of $3.6 billion for the quarter, or $7.09 per share, crushing analyst expectations for earnings of $4.72 per share. Amazon continues to set a new high bar for profits every quarter, with the previous record of $3 billion set last quarter.

Itâ€™s estimated that there will be 1.92 billion global digital buyers in 2019.

eCommerce retail sales are expected to account for 13.7% of global retail sales in 2019.

The total value of global retail eCommerce sales will reach $3.45T in 2019.

Within retail eCommerce, general merchandise will account for about 67% of sales, or $401.63 billion.

The fastest growth in retail eCommerce between 2018 and 2022 is expected in India and Indonesia.

eCommerce retail sales are expected to account for 33.6% of total retail sales in China in 2019.

PayPal had 267M active registered accounts by the fourth quarter of 2018.

How different generations spend online?

Only 9.6% of Gen Z reports buying items in a physical store â€“ considerably less than their older generations (Millennials at 31.04%, Gen X at 27.5%, and Baby Boomers at 31.9% respectively).

Gen Z respondents spend 8% more of their discretionary income each month online than the global average â€“ and tend to prefer online purchases to those made offline.

Only 56% of Gen Z consumers made a purchase in a physical store in the last six months compared to 65% of all respondents.

30% of Gen Z buyers saw an ad about the product on social media, and 22% visited at least one of the brandâ€™s social channels prior to making an in-store purchase.

Only one-quarter (27%) of Baby Boomers or Seniors see the availability of financing as influential.

As online experiences become more and more seamless, brands will look to build moats around themselves with high-quality and high-interactivity offline experiences. To account for all of the offline experience needs, expect an increase in hiring from older generations who once built the meccas of retail experiences in their heyday.

Consumer online shopping behaviors

In the last 6 months, 78% of global respondents to BigCommerceâ€™s survey made a purchase on Amazon, 65% in a physical store, 45% on a branded online store, 34% on eBay and another 11% Facebook.

For 36% of respondents, financing enabled them to buy a more expensive option than they were previously considering, and another 31% of consumers would not have made the purchase otherwise.

When asked about their shopping behaviors prior to making a purchase in a physical retail store, 39% of digital consumers visited a brandâ€™s website, 36% read customer reviews, 33% attempted to price match the product online, with 32% finding the brand on Amazon.

eBay remains a valuable purchase destination in the UK, with more than half (57%) of survey respondents making a purchase on its marketplace over the course of the past six months.

Cross-device targeting yields 16% more conversions for retail advertisers in the US.

More digital buyers purchase clothing online in 2019, with online sales will increase 14.8% year over year, compared with brick-and-mortar growth of 1.9%.

84% of people will abandon a purchase if theyâ€™re dealing with an unsecured website.

63% of customers are more likely to make a purchase from a site which has user reviews.

Nearly 70% of shoppers surveyed say their most recent returns experience was â€śeasyâ€ť or â€śvery easy,â€ť and 96% would shop with a retailer again based on that experience.

More than two-thirds of shoppers say theyâ€™re deterred by having to pay for return shipping (69%) or restocking fees (67%), and 17% said they would not make a purchase without the option to return to a store.

Mail is the most common way (74%) to return an online purchase.

The average global cart abandonment rate in Q3 of 2018 was 76.9%.

The average open rate for an abandoned cart email is 15.21%, and the average click-through rate is 21.12% for SmartrMail users.

The average revenue per email for an abandoned cart email is $27.12 (for SmartrMail users).

Abandoned cart emails are the most profitable type of email that you can send as an online retailer.

How Americans spend online?

53% of US shoppers won't purchase something if they don't know when it will arrive.

Retail eCommerce will account for 10.9% of total US retail spending across all merchants in 2019â€”about one-eighth the size of brick-and-mortar retail.

80% of Internet users in the US have made at least one purchase online.

In the last six months, 83% of US consumers have made a purchase on Amazon.

There are over 95 million Amazon Prime members in the United States.

On average, two in five US consumers (41%) receive one to two packages from Amazon per week. That number jumps to half (50%) for consumers ages 18-25, and 57% for consumers ages 26-35.

83% of US online shoppers expect regular communication about their purchases.

61% of US consumers say that they have messaged a business in the last 3 months.

70% of the US consumers who message businesses expect a faster response than they would have gotten had they used a more traditional mode of communication.

69% of US consumers who message businesses say that being able to message a business helps them feel more confident about the brand.

79% of US consumers said that free shipping would make them more likely to shop online.

54% of US consumers under the age of 25 said that same-day shipping is their number one purchase driver.

Only 15% of US consumers said that online retailers always offer shipping options that meet their expectations for speed of delivery, compared to 30% that report the same for Amazon.

53% of US online shoppers wonâ€™t purchase a product if they donâ€™t know when it will arrive.

54% of US online shoppers will give repeat business to a retailer that can predict when a package will arrive.

42% of US online shoppers have returned an item they bought online in the last six months.

63% of US online shoppers said that they would not make a purchase if they couldnâ€™t find the return policy.

Nearly 70% of US online shoppers said that their most recent return experience was â€śeasyâ€ť or â€śvery easy,â€ť and 96% would buy from that retailer again based on that experience.

59% of US online shoppers said that they want to receive notifications about the status of their refund.

41% of US online shoppers said that they â€śbracketâ€ť at least some online purchases (â€śbracketingâ€ť refers to buying multiple versions of the same item, then returning those that didnâ€™t work).

58.6% of US online shoppers have abandoned a cart within the last 3 months because â€śI was just browsing/not ready to buy.â€ť

29% of US online shoppers use or plan to use chatbots to shop online.

The top three reasons US online shoppers give for abandoning a cart during checkout are high extra costs, the need to create an account, and a complicated checkout process (these are the survey results after removing the â€śI was just browsing/not ready to buyâ€ť segment).

Digital Marketing & Ad Spendings

Over 90% of online experience begins with a search engine.

A November 2018 survey from CPC Strategy found that roughly one in five internet users shopped for clothes via digital channels frequently.

The high cost of paid media (Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc.) and the difficulty in securing return on ad spend will make paid media teams ever-more important for ecommerce brands â€“ and ever-more allusive and expensive to boot.

Due to the high cost of paid media and paid media teams as well as consumersâ€™ devouring of more top-of-funnel content, content and commerce will continue to be a money-maker for brands who invest appropriately.

In Q3 2018, 77% of traffic on Shopify stores was coming through mobile devices.

Potential reach of advertising on Facebook: 1,887 million.

The average amount of time between a Google product search and a purchase is 20 days; whereas on Amazon, the number is 26 days.

35% of Google product searches turn into transactions within 5 days.

Google Shopping ads spend was up 43% YoY in Q4 of 2018, making the quarter the fastest growth rate in two years.

However, only 43% of online stores see significant traffic from their social media pages.

Mobile Internet Usage & Trends

Globally, we saw 30 billion global combined app downloads â€” also the largest quarter ever, up 10% year over year.

The top three messaging apps have user bases of 1 billion or more.

In Q1 2019, global iOS and Google Play consumer spend surpassed $22 billion â€” the most lucrative quarter ever, up 20% year over year.

There are 5.11 billion unique mobile users in the world today, up 100 million (2 percent) in the past year.

There are now more than 5.1 billion people around the world using a mobile phone â€“ a year-on-year increase of 2.7 percent â€“ with smartphones accounting for more than two-thirds of all devices in use today.

In Q4 2018, the total number of mobile subscriptions was around 7.9 billion, with a net addition of 43 million subscriptions during the quarter.

The number of US smartphone users will reach 232.8 million in 2019, surpassing desktop/laptop internet users (228.9 million) for the first time.

Over 230 million U.S. consumers own smartphones, around 100 million U.S. consumers own tablets.

An estimated 10 billion mobile connected devices are currently in use.

59% of smartphone users favor businesses with mobile sites or apps that enable them to make purchases easily and quickly.

As of January 2019, there are 53.60 million active mobile internet users in the UK.

In India, there are 515.2 million active mobile internet users.

There are 765.1 million active mobile internet users in China.

69% of smartphone users say theyâ€™re more likely to buy from businesses with mobile sites or apps that answer their questions.

Google is responsible for 96% of all smartphone search traffic

People are buying more from their mobile

Almost 40% of all eCommerce purchases during the 2018 holiday season were made on a smartphone.

80% of shoppers used a mobile phone inside of a physical store to either look up product reviews, compare prices or find alternative store locations.

80% of Americans are online shoppers. More than half of them have made purchases on mobile devices

People who have a bad mobile experience with your business are 62% less likely to become your customer in the future.

During Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2018, 66% of sales from Shopify merchants happened on mobile compared 34% on desktop.

Compared to non-users, Instagram users are 70% more likely to make online purchases on their mobile devices.

6% of online shoppers prefer mobile wallets over other forms of payment.

China

Social media marketing

The social marketerâ€™s #1 challenge is still ROI. Return on investment is the top concern for 55% of social marketers.

On the front lines with customers and prospects everyday, an overwhelming majority (88%) of social marketers understand the importance of customer service on social; more than half (45%) of consumer respondents have reached out to a company on social.

More than half of social marketers donâ€™t have access to all the software they need, and 65% of social marketers indicate needing a dedicated resource for content development.

A whopping 97% of social marketers list Facebook as their most used and useful social network, and Instagram blows Snapchat out of the water by social marketer usership and consumer adoption.

83% of marketers use Instagram and 13% use Snapchat; 51% of consumers use Instagram and 30% use Snapchat.

83% of people say Instagram helps them discover new products and services. 81% say the platform helps them research products and services, and 80% say it helps them decide whether to make a purchase.

Engagement between users and brands on Instagram is 10 times greater than it is on Facebook, 54 times greater than it is on Pinterest, and 84 times greater than it is on Twitter.

Disclosure: We are affiliated to some companies mentioned in this article. If you buy from our referral links, we earn a small commission (at no cost to you).

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